


Hazy Fluorescent Nights

by nocturnalboys



Series: Nights [3]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: M/M, Rated T for some cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 02:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10504128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturnalboys/pseuds/nocturnalboys
Summary: Hakuryuu, working an evening shift at the Target, has a run-in with a curious character, who plans on staying way past closing time.





	

Anxious to get home, water his plants, and fall down in bed before his second wind kicked in, Hakuryuu checked the little green digital clock on the cash register. Eleven ten, it seemed to sneer back up at him, blinking menacingly. In twenty minutes he could finally lock up and leave the Target at the corner of Washington and Cowell Street, which wouldn’t be such a bad place to spend so much time if he got to spend it sitting down and not arguing with irate, middle-aged white women. 

He peered out from his cashier’s enclosure, as he lovingly called it when no one was around, and scanned the Women’s Athletic section. It looked empty enough. Flicking off the backlight on his register, number fourteen, he locked the cash away securely and unpinned his nametag. 

The place was serene with no customers, no clusters of sticky children or elderly men getting lost on their way to the bathroom, or grown-ass adults getting snippy with him about what they could or could not return. The air hummed with a subdued energy, waves of white light reflecting off the nearly-clean tile between departments. On the wall in the very back, hanging above the seasonal aisles like a blood moon, the Target bulls-eye glowed its signature soothing red. Not quite neon, not quite Crayola. Picking through his key ring, Hakuryuu closed the bathrooms, the baby food displays, and the digital camera shelf, wrapping his way around the inner departments in a loose spiral.

For the third night in a row, the mattress display in front of Home Goods was completely undone, the down comforter wrinkled and twisted. Hakuryuu had forgotten about it that afternoon, but the moment he rounded the bed, he recalled that morning’s brief awkward encounter with what seemed like a shoplifter in the small produce section. If people were going to run about using his (that was, the branch of the corporation that happened to employ him) store for bizarre social experiments, at least they could try tidying up after themselves, he thought, fluffing the pillows passive-aggressively. 

“If you’re still here, can you please make this bed tomorrow? You’re not folding the blanket right.” Hakuryuu announced to the empty aisle. 

“Fuck, how did you know what I was doing?” There was a strange sound from behind him, rubber squealing against rubber before the peach thief from aisle 2 slid out of a children’s bouncy ball display. 

Hakuryuu snorted, putting his hand over his mouth. “Oh my god, your hair It’s…”

“It’s what?” He asked, his static-touched bangs sticking up into the air like he’d been rubbing a balloon on them for hours.

“Nothing, nothing… anyway, it wasn’t hard to figure it out. I’ve never had someone try to do it here before, and I’ve worked here for six months, but I have heard about people who do weird stuff like this. So how long are you trying to live here?” Hakuryuu managed to ask him with a straight face.

Still not picking up on how desperately his bangs were reaching skyward, the long term loiterer grinned slightly. “I’m starting at a week. I’m Judal, by the way. So does this mean you aren’t kicking me out? Walmart and Costco kicked me out.”

Hakuryuu sighed. “To be honest, I’m curious about how long you can manage. But try to at least clean up after yourself? I have enough customer service hang-ups.” 

Judal made a face, one of his smooth cheeks dimpling very slightly. He leaned against the bouncy ball display, long arms crossed over his chest, trying to look nonchalant; the static ruined the image completely. “Eh, I guess so, since you’re letting me stay here. Can you do me a favor?”

“What is it?” 

“Maybe leave those big TV’s on the wall down in electronics turned on? It gets boring as fuck in here at night, like, what am I supposed to do, sleep all night?”

Hakuryuu laughed, rolling his eyes. “Most people do, yeah.” Judal was kinetic. It made Hakuryuu feel both at ease, and alert. Relaxed, and weirdly attracted. “I’ll leave a few of them on, but I’m warning you, they only play looped travel shows.”

“Eh, better than nothing! So what’s your name?” Judal arched a brow, pointedly, his eyes swinging to focus on Hakuryuu. “I don’t see your name tag, I don’t think you’re following employee protocol.”

“It’s Hakuryuu.” He flushed, stepping to the side. “I’m gonna finish up here but uh… I’ll see you in the morning. Presuming you do survive the beasts that come out of the freezers after midnight.”

Judal chuckled. “I was expecting a challenge, really. I can take em. As long as you come back tomorrow, I’ll have something to look forward to.”

Was that flirting? Did the guy trying to squat in Target for a week just hit on him? Oddly, it wasn’t the strangest way he’d ever been subtly romanced. And not to say that Judal was bad looking, either. In fact, if he was really flirting, it was perplexing to consider what Judal would see in him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be here,” Hakuryuu assured him, trying not to let his delighted confusion show, “I clock in at nine.”

Judal grinned again, and Hakuryuu let it hit him this time. “I’ll be the guy at the snack bar eating all the popcorn. I’m honest, I can admit that about myself.”

Ten minutes later, once he was safely in the darkness of the parking lot, Hakuryuu allowed a stupid smile to spread over his face. His car was parked between floodlights, so no one saw his blush as he slid into the driver’s seat, and, instead of thinking about home, thought about a boy for the first time since high school.

It was nice, Hakuryuu decided, to have someone to like. Better that the person in question was interesting, that was for certain.


End file.
